Red Sox Bats Go to Work and Give Beckett a Rest

Manny Ramirez hit a single during the Red Sox' 10-3 win.Credit
Brian Snyder/Reuters

BOSTON, Oct. 12 — Travis Hafner took a mighty swing in the first inning and sent a ball soaring over the right-field fence, briefly quieting the eager Red Sox fans and producing a rare postseason event. Hafner’s home run meant that Josh Beckett, the October intimidator, had allowed a run in the playoffs.

The Cleveland Indians had only a few minutes to relish their lead against Beckett. The Red Sox scored a run in the first and continued pelting an erratic C. C. Sabathia, Beckett resumed his postseason exploits and Boston breezed to a 10-3 victory in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.

About the only damage the Indians did against Beckett on Friday night was end his streak of scoreless innings in the playoffs. Beckett, who wore long red sleeves under his uniform jersey on a raw and windy night, allowed one more run in six reliable innings. By the sixth, the game was basically decided.

The Red Sox look powerful as they try to march past the Indians and into the World Series. Beckett is performing like the definitive ace that every team craves in October, David Ortiz and Manny Ramírez are frightening pitchers, and the Red Sox are playing with a lot of confidence. It is a best-of-seven series, but it looked like a serious mismatch after the opener.

Ortiz and Ramírez combined to reach base in all 10 of their plate appearances and went 4 for 4 with five walks and four runs. Ramirez had three runs batted in.

Since the playoffs began, Boston’s devastating third and fourth hitters have been on base in 29 of 36 plate appearances, a shocking statistic.

“I don’t think it’s new for you guys to watch me and Manny hit,” Ortiz said. “We keep it simple. That’s how it is.”

Sabathia, a 19-game winner, and Beckett, who won 20, are the top contenders for the Cy Young award. But, on this critical night, Sabathia did not come close to matching Beckett and did not last past the fifth. He was bruised for eight runs, five of which resulted from a walk or a hit batter, in four and a third innings.

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As talented as Sabathia is, he seemed reluctant to challenge hitters, especially Ortiz and Ramírez. In six at-bats against the left-handed Sabathia, Ramírez and Ortiz combined to go 3 for 3 with two walks and a hit batter. Ramírez is 14 for 23 against Sabathia in his career, but recently it has seemed as if Ramírez and Ortiz were 14 for 23 against every pitcher.

“I’m definitely excited I don’t have to face those two guys, particularly back to back, or even just one or the other,” Beckett said.

The Indians have to hope that Fausto Carmona can help them rebound against Curt Schilling in Game 2 on Saturday night. Schilling, who has 216 career victories to Carmona’s 20, called himself an underdog. That may be true, but the Red Sox are favored in the series.

After Hafner’s bases-empty home run, Ramírez’s line-drive single tied the score in the bottom of the first. The Red Sox added four runs in the third on Ramírez’s bases-loaded walk, Mike Lowell’s two-run double and Jason Varitek’s run-scoring groundout. The Red Sox had a 5-1 lead, but, with Sabathia fading and Beckett sailing, it felt like a larger cushion.

Two innings later, it was. Two walks and a single by Ramírez loaded the bases again. Kielty, who replaced J. D. Drew in right field because he was 9 for 29 against Sabathia, singled to deliver two runs and end Sabathia’s night. Varitek followed with a two-run double against Jensen Lewis. Sabathia has allowed 11 runs on 11 hits and 11 walks in 9 1/3 innings this postseason.

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With the game in hand after six innings, the Red Sox rested Josh Beckett, who struck out seven.Credit
Al Bello/Agence France-Presse

So Sabathia has been the antithesis of Beckett, who used a nifty curveball to help him strike out seven without a walk. Beckett is 2-0 with a 1.20 earned run average in two playoff starts this season. He is 4-2 with a 1.87 E.R.A. in his career. Beckett helped the Florida Marlins win a title in 2003, and he is a better and smarter pitcher now.

The Indians are what the Red Sox once were, a team with an achingly long history without winning a World Series title. For the Red Sox, an 86-year drought finally and mercifully ended in 2004. For the Indians, the streak without a championship stretches to 1948.

There were fans throughout New York and New England who were hoping, even expecting, that the Yankees would face the Red Sox in the A.L.C.S. They had met three times since 1999 and have the most intense rivalry in baseball. But those visions were destroyed when the Indians dismissed the Yankees.

Beckett was dominant while pitching a shutout against the Angels in the division series, giving him 18 straight scoreless innings in the postseason. His other shutout came with the Marlins in Game 6 against the Yankees in the World Series. The scoreless streak died in the first.

But almost everything after that was a positive for the Red Sox. Beckett looked intimidating, Ortiz and Ramírez looked mean, and every starter had a hit. With three more victories, the Red Sox, who are cursed no more, will advance to their second World Series in four seasons.

Correction: October 16, 2007

Because of an editing error, a sports article in some editions on Saturday about Boston’s victory over Cleveland in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, behind the strong pitching of Josh Beckett, misidentified the decisive game in the 2003 World Series in which Beckett, then a Florida Marlin, dominated the Yankees. It was Game 6; there was no Game 7. The article also described incorrectly in some copies Boston’s lead in the third inning of the Cleveland game. The Red Sox scored four runs to take a 5-1 lead, not three runs to take a 4-1 lead.